Who Do You Call in a Crisis?

Social media crises are unique to each industry and each company, as situations can arise out of nowhere. Because consumers can so easily publish their grievances, even by just taking a picture or shooting a video and posting it from their mobile phone to Facebook or another site, each situation will be different, which is why companies must constantly follow online mentions.

Some commonalities in crisis management exist, however:

Establish a social media presence as soon as possible to begin building rapport with consumers online.

Respond immediately to a problem with a frank acknowledgement that the company is aware of the situation and will follow up quickly (within hours) with more information.

Keep communicating about the situation; don’t wait till more information is available, but respond that you are looking into the crisis, explain how, and as soon as more info is available, deliver it. Support the open communications effort with real business processes and decisions.

New lines of communication should be made available to people who wish to contact the company privately with their concerns, observations, questions, and suggestions.

Individual consumers with legitimate concerns deserve the company’s attention, recognition, and problem resolution.